LEGIONNAIRE  1
by EpicfailNG
Summary: Meet three heroes, Merric, Ianendithus, and Sigure.  After being reunited after having bounties on their heads for reasons not yet revealed, they are needed by the city of Greyhawk. However, after being reunited they run in to a camp of goblins and orcs..


**LEGIONNARE**

Three heroes, Merric the charming halfling rogue, Ianendithus, the dwarven cleric, and Sigure, the half elf warlock were together once again.

It had been a number of weeks since they had last seen one another, after a major problem with their previous adventure, the three of them needed to lay low, and in different cities.

It was late one night when Merric heard a rapping sound on the door of the large tree he had been staying in.

He made this his home to remember the good days he had once had with the master rogues who had raised him in the woods from a far away continent.

After only about five years of living in the world of Flanaess, he had already been running in to trouble, a lot of it.

His long blond hair lay on his pillow, while covering his eyes.

To others, the rapping at the door was nearly silent, but he could hear it as if it was a large gang of monsters had come storming in, ready to kill.

Silently, he sprinted over to the door, judging by how silent it was he could only assume it was a good friend of his, could it have been one of the two men he had spent most of his time with the past while? His adventuring company?

There was one way to find out, and if it was somebody looking for his head, they would have a very difficult time getting it.

He pushed his back against the door before opening it, with his ears against the beautiful oak wood, he could hear a man clear his throat, and then a bottle drop on the ground. The noise rang his ears, and then he heard a belch. A large smile grew on the face as he opened the door, it was in fact his good friend, Ianendithus.

There he stood, wreaking of strong alcohol. This was typical for Ianendithus, not only because he was a dwarf, but because he just enjoyed drinking far too much.

The relationship between these two men was very strong, after meeting as teenagers in Espivona during a scuffle between themselves, some other men and a few bandits.

In the end of that, Merric and Ianendithus came out on top, making those lowlife bandits look worse than the scum they really are. At that point, Ianendithus offered drinks for those left standing, which was only himself, Merric, and some other dwarf whose name they never did catch.

Since that night, they spent most days together, as well as most nights, their adventure company became what it was with them, and together the two set off, questing to help others, but mostly to gain their own fame and fortune.

"Well, holy shit!" Merric said, as he stood at the door with his arm out, Ianendithus stumbled slowly inside and took a seat on the bed Merric had just been laying on.

He watched as the large sleeping bag got pushed down, "That will never be as comfortable as it was two minutes ago, thanks." he said to him, wearing a crooked smile on his face.

Letting out another loud belch, Ianendithus began speaking, "We have no reason to hide anymore, my dear friend. Everything is under control, and the people of Greyhawk are no longer frowning upon us. In fact, they need our help again." He cleared his throat,

"Our names are cleared now, I just received word from Nerof Gasgal, the king, that we are free men. No reason to run, no reason to hide." Merric's eyes lit up with joy, he was unsure whether he was a good or a bad person, he did what needed to be done, and whatever could make him some coin, but he strongly disliked having people after him like this.

"Well, this is fantastic news, Ianendithus! But what is it that they need our help with?" he asked, concerned of what may be coming in his near future... There had been no wars recently, he been speaking with many bandits and nothing had been said of issues going on in the land, this left Merric very puzzled.

"No details have been said to me, Merric. But I do know that we will need to find Sigure, we are not a team without him." he said, before pulling out a large bottle of ale. He chugged a large portion of it back, and put the cork back in the hole at the neck of the bottle.

"So, shall we get going now? Or rest for the night?" Ianendithus asked Merric, as he cleared this throat.

By now, the hollowed tree had begun to smell like a brewery, and Merric was one to only have a few drinks. It disappointed him to see Ianendithus always drinking like this, but his problems were nowhere near as bad as Sigure's.

The two heroes set off that night, venturing to find where their good friend could be, without a single clue they decided the city of Greyhawk would be a good start, folks at the tavern would always share something they heard or know of for a bit of coin or ale.

Walking through the woods in the dark was not something most people would do, there had been a lot of bandits around these parts lately, hell, they were around the entire land these days... It made the two men sick, although they did have their share of doing the wrong thing for a few coins, that was passed them, and they had always known right from wrong.

If they were to run in to any of these bandits, the men knew they were safe.

Merric and Ianendithus had been through Hell together, the past few months they had been running from the authorities, anybody looking to bring their heads in for some extra coin to weigh down their pockets, or anybody looking to get signed into the military.

Well, they still had never been caught, and they felt invincible, perhaps they were.

After a number of miles walking to the city, they finally stood outside the southern entrance, "It feels like it has been years." Merric said to Ianendithus as they stared at the torch-lit pathway. "Yes, let's go have a look." he replied, and with that they entered Greyhawk.

Walking down the pathways, the city seemed to be nearly dead. There was not a face to be seen outside, and not a single light on in any of the houses.

The men did not say anything as they continued their walk to the tavern, but they kept their eyes peeled.

Merric's hearing senses and excellent perception would keep them safe, or at least spot any harm before the harm spotted them. Ianendithus' skills were handy, being a cleric he was not only able to heal anybody when necessary, he was a powerful cleric, a mighty dwarf.

In no time at all, the two of them entered the tavern, finally they had heard some noise, people were in the tavern, but why was the rest of the city silent?

They stood in the doorway looking around for somebody they may recognize, before Merric had a chance to look around the wooden tavern, he spotted Ianendithus asking the bartender for a drink.

He sighed as he caught up to him, it was all the time this would happen, Ianendithus did not change a single bit.

Merric took a seat next to him and did not say a word, he was listening for a familiar voice, anything at all. These men were famous around here, and they knew a lot of people... Where were they all?

"Well, I don't see a single person here that could help us, they all seem to be useless drunken peasants." Merric said as he turned to Ianendithus, who was taking a big gulp out of the freshly poured glass of ale. He did not say a word to what Merric had to say, useless and drunken did not go well in the same sentence with him, and he did not like hearing it one bit. Not wanting to explode with the ever-growing anger inside of him, he took another swig of the cold ale and set the glass down, making a loud noise that ran through the tavern.

A number of minutes passed, and the two heroes sat there, still not a single word was said. Merric knew he had upset Ianendithus, but he was never very well with apologies, besides that, Ianendithus was very on edge when he was drinking... Which was just about always.

Ianendithus finished his drink and set the empty glass down, this time not in anger.

It was only a couple of times he had to do that before the glass would shatter in his own hands.

Merric excused himself, and headed towards the restroom, it had been a long night and it was about to get much longer...

Upon entering the men's restroom, he saw two men dressed in cloth cloaks, their hoods were up and their faces could not be seen. A sharp dagger shined as it was held towards a man's throat, Merric was about to witness a crime, murder.

"Hey!" he shouted at the bandits, who immediately turned around in fear, he could only assume that they were amateurs.

The bandits noticed him for who he was, the only halfling in the land who could be truly intimidating.

They fled the room faster than anybody he had ever seen, while the door slammed behind him, Merric approached the man who had fallen to the ground, there was no blood to be seen, and the man was breathing, very heavily.

"Are you alright?" Merric asked him, as he stood over the man, still rapidly breathing.

The man's eyes moved, and he looked up towards Merric, though he was not much to look up at given his height, he saw a large smile grow on the man's face.

"Merric!" he said with relief, and Merric did recognize the voice, very well.

He was shocked to hear it, and thought at first he could be imagining things. Could it really be him? Why the hell was he just in the middle of the city at a time like this? In a place so public?

"Sigure, what the fuck are you doing?" He asked him as he helped the half-elf up on his feet. It had felt like ages since he had last seen him.

"Well, I uhh... It's been getting worse, Merric! I did not mean to end up here... But I was out hiding in the woods... The black cat lead me here, one of them any way! I couldn't... I had to follow it! I'm sorry!" he said, and began sounding very upset and disappointed in himself.

"Sigure, you really need to see somebody about this.. Seriously! Do you have any idea what could have happened? Half of these people don't know the bounties are off! And by the looks of it those two men were an example of those folk... I just saved your life, again!" he said.

He did not want to get so angry at him, especially considering the three of them were just now reunited, but things never change... He had stressed this enough to Sigure in the past.

Sigure apologized, over and over again, as if he was truly sorry, but Merric did not believe him.

They exited the restroom of the tavern as they heard a number of people begin shouting, quickly they ran into the lobby and saw Ianendithus taking on the two bandits.

He slowly grabbed a bottle of wine off of the counter while one bandit held on to his leg, the other was reaching in to his pocket for the dagger which was already held to Sigure's own throat.

"God damn it..." Merric said, as he reached to pull out his two short swords, quickly he had them both in his hands, and he was ready to kill these men.

Running towards the one on the ground, he stabbed him in the leg with a quick swing, the blade went straight through, and into the wooden floor.

The screams of the bandit filled the air, inside the tavern, and most likely a few blocks away. If any of the races in the city were asleep nearby, they no longer would be.

Ianendithus quickly kicked the injured man in the face, he was now free of his grips, and could handle the other bandit himself.

Powerfully, he smashed the full wine bottle over the head of the man, just after dodging the swing of his dagger, he may have been a drunken dwarf, but he was a very talented one.

Over the bandits head, the glass shattered leaving a large puddle of wine, mixed with a bit of blood.

Merric rushed over as Ianendithus removed the man's hood to reveal his face, this man was no man, nor human. A female orc. Ianendithus hated the sight of orcs, he despised the filthy creatures more than anything. He should kill her right here, but would he? In front of all these witnesses? After he just got word that the bounty was off?

The three heroes were safe again, reunited, and needed to help with the problems Greyhawk was facing, could this orc be one of the problems?

"Come on guys." Merric said, watching his dwarven partner stare at the injured orc, "Ianendithus, we are leaving." he said, then looked towards Sigure, signalling for him to lead them out of the tavern.

The dwarf got off of the orc with disgust covering his face, looking around at all the folks in the tavern, he made his exit with his friends.

"Listen I-" Ianendithus began, "I don't want to hear it!" Merric responded, "Let's just go, now." Ianendithus looked at Sigure and nodded, he was in no mood to say much anymore. He had upset his nearly lifelong friend, and had nothing to say anymore.

"Where are we going?" Sigure asked his two friends, "I need to go back to my camp I had you guys, I need to get some things." he said, with an upset voice.

Merric and Ianendithus looked at one another, neither wanted to waste time, this was going to slow them down... But at the same time, it had been so long since they had done anything together, maybe it would be nice.

They both nodded at one another, "Okay Sigure, let's get going then."

With that, the three heroes exited Greyhawk, through the same path Merric and Ianendithus had entered from.

Walking down the paths, the sun had begin to rise, slowly but surely, it was getting brighter out.

With hardly any sleep in the last 24 hours for the three of them, they were getting quite tired but stopping would get them nowhere.

Not much was said during the walk however, but Merric did have some things to say.

"You know, what you did back in the tavern was very stupid, Sigure... I mean, we have been wanted for how long now? Three? Four months? And there you were in the middle of public with a dagger held to your throat, do you understand how lucky you are that we stopped by?" he began to raise his voice without meaning to.

"Like I said, Merric, I saw a black cat and it lead me here! How do you not understand that? Do you have any idea what it is like? It was speaking to me!" he shouted in anger at Merric, and then began to smile.

Merric stared at him as they kept walking, letting out a sigh.

He wondered to himself, why they even brought him along, why they saved his life, he had been a burden on them for the entire time. Sure, they loved him and he was considered to be family, but he was just very... Odd. However, he was very skilled in battle, as were all of them and they would prove that to the world in time... But no time soon.

As the three of them continued walking, they found themselves travelling through a large range of mountains, but not mountains they recognized.

Without saying anything as usual, they continued their travels and eventually realized they were in fact lost.

Though it seemed that these men had travelled all of the land in this world, it appeared that was only a rumour everybody including themselves had believed.

"How can we be lost? We have not been walking far at all!" Sigure said, he sounded as though he was nearing a panic attack. "Calm down... Follow me." Ianendithus said in his calm and deep voice.

Ianendithus lead them to the highest point of the mountain, setting down his bags he reached inside and pulled out a tent set up.

"We need to rest here, set up camp and we will continue on tomorrow, once the sun is up we will be able to find out where exactly we are." he said to them.

Sigure set up his tent, along with Merric.

It had been a long day, but a good day nonetheless. With the three of them reunited, and the bounty off of their heads, things would soon be back to normal, or so they hoped.

Was anything ever normal? What was normal, anyway? The proper term would be, things would be back to how they usually were.

The sun rose completely now, and the birds were chirping away in the trees above, the three had must have only gotten a few hours of sleep, three or maybe four... They did not need much sleep anyways.

Ianendithus opened his eyes as the sun had began to shine into his tent, walking out he saw Sigure sitting at a fire he must have built, rocking back a forth with a smile on his face.

He stared at him for a few moments, "You know... I'm not even going to ask." he said to him.

The smile on Sigure's face grew, and the rocking slowed down.

Merric was seen standing at the edge of the mountain, he turned to see everyone was now awake, "I've looked from every point up here, Greyhawk can not be seen, my friends." he said to Ianendithus and Sigure.

Neither of them were worried, so to say. But they were curious, and had never been more curious in their time.

"Wait a minute..." Sigure said, in a voice he usually never spoke in... Being one to always make voices that were not his own, he continued, "Could this be... The Engrab Hills?" the smile had disappeared, and his face began to show a slight bit of fear when he mentioned the name.

Merric and Ianendithus both stared at one another.

The Engrab Hills were one of the most infamous in the land, the Engrab Hills were a large part of the Orcish Pomarj.

"You know what... Your gear can not be that important, Sigure, we are going back to Greyhawk, now!" Merric said.

Only fools would go to The Engrab Hills, unless they had an entire army with them of course.

Fortunately for the group, the northern star began to shine very bright, after Merric pointed it out, the men quickly packed up their camp and set out, they would follow this star, and it would soon lead them back to Greyhawk.

They continued their walk through the extensive range of mountains, until they vaguely saw what appeared to be some sort of war camp. Stopping in their trails, the small men stood, and tried to get a clear look at what was going on. Being spotted was none of their concern, from such a distance they would hardly be noticeable.

About half a kilometre a way, the three of them moved a bit closer, eager to find out what it was, they hoped it was not what they had assumed.

Moving closer, they reached a good vantage point to get a more clear view on this camp.

To the group's amazement, there was a large swarm of goblins in the camp.

"Goblins? In the Engrab Hills?" Sigure asked, questioning them, and not his friends.

Ianendithus and Merric both stood staring wide eyed at the goblins, waiting to see what they were up to.

Amongst the goblins, was a single orc which was pointed out by Ianendithus, "Look at that, it almost looks like that orc is trying to manipulate them... Maybe to be his warriors?" he said, his voice was calm and deep, as it had always been. He showed no aggression, only interest.

Merric had an angered face on him, if the orcs were looking to recruit these goblins, it could only mean that war was to be brought in the near future, whether it be between the orcs or goblins, or both and the humans, or any other race, this was not something the group wanted to se.

Being as reckless as he is, he suggested without hesitation that the three of them attack at once, they would rush in and kill them all.

Without wasting any time for the others to reply, he jumped off of the cliff and ran towards the camp.

Sigure and Ianendithus looked at each other for less than a second, and jumped down following their friend.

unfortunately, the three friends landed right next to a goblin training building, one that could not be seen from their vantage point.

Immediately, the group was noticed by a gang of goblins, and with that, they charged in to battle.

The goblins ran back in to the building, right after swinging a quick attack at Sigure.

Merric was furious, and rushed right in after them, Ianendithus and Sigure followed.

The walls were made of thick oak logs, above was a dark red coloured roof made of cloth material, the entire room was lit up with the flashing of bronze and iron. Before the three heroes had a chance, the group of goblins rushed right towards them.

After being nearly injured outside the building, Sigure quickly shot a blast of fire at the a goblin, hitting it before it even had the chance to see it coming, it fell to the ground and quickly got back up, it was not enough to leave him injured.

Using his hammer, Ianendithus slowly swung at the goblin nearest to him, to his left it was standing, ready to shoot an arrow through his armour. That was not going to happen, not today. There was no chance that these goblins would live to tell a tale of the fight.

He swung at the goblin and hit it instantly, but it looked to be hardly effective.

"What are we going to do?" Sigure asked in a panic, as he prepared to cast another spell on the same goblin as before.

Merric quickly ran over on the top of his feet, making zero noise at all he swung for the goblin, but not fast enough. The goblin quickly jumped and evaded the attack, countering him, Merric was cut on the arm with the small blade it wielded. Noticing the bit of blood, he began to show a lot of anger in his face, holding the wound he rushed towards the goblin and had him against a wall, one of his short swords quickly found it's way through it's flesh, and any sign of life quickly left the goblin. Now lifeless, it laid on the ground next to a burning fire.

The largest goblin in the room hopped towards Ianendithus, trying to hit him with his small iron sword, he left a gash in his leg and quickly hopped back to it's previous location.

Looking around the room with not much time to think, Merric noticed a torch hanging above them, near the cloth roof he wondered how it did not catch fire... That was not his concern though, with his acrobatic skills he quickly ran towards the large goblin, he jumped near him, landing on his head his two swords both found a spot in his neck, he jumped again off of the goblin and swung at the torch, causing the roof of the armoury to begin burning.

Once he reached the ground he turned and saw the corpse of a dismembered goblin twitching on the ground next to him.

This left a single goblin in the room, and Merric quickly shot an attack at him from a distance, with the roof on fire he shot his frozen arrow storm from his staff, causing a large amount of arrows to fire towards the ceiling, they quickly caught fire as the ice melted and to his luck, a number of them hit the goblin, it was not dead however, he would slowly burn alive.

"Alright, well that did not work out as planned." Ianendithus said, looking around at the lifeless goblins, and the one running around screaming it's language as loud as possible, the shrieks rang their ears.

Before they had a chance to discuss anything, a large door at the other end of the room opened, and there stood two more large goblins, and between the two stood a gigantic orc.


End file.
